KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Junior Caminero knows that the All-Star Home Run Derby doesn’t begin for a couple of weeks.
The Tampa Bay slugger is ready to go anyway.
Just hours after committing to participating in the event in Philadelphia on July 13, Caminero homered in his fifth straight game, a three-run shot off the Royals’ Noah Cameron on Tuesday night. It was his eighth in the past seven games — something nobody in club history has ever accomplished — and it sent Tampa Bay to a 10-4 rout of Kansas City in the opener of their three-game series.
Asked to put Caminero’s hot streak in perspective, Rays manager Kevin Cash replied: “I don’t know if I can.”
“He’s really seeing the ball well,” Cash said, “and when he gets a ball to hit, he’s doing it.”
Caminero, the AL player of the week after launching seven homers and piling up 15 RBIs last week, put on a show last year in the Home Run Derby. With his multicolored bat sending social media ablaze, Caminero advanced to the final round before losing a close contest to Seattle slugger Cal Raleigh. The final was 18-15 in a long-ball hitting showcase that boosted ratings on ESPN.
Caminero, who turns 23 on Sunday, went on to hit 45 homers last season, finishing sixth in Major League Baseball.
He may beat that number with ease this season. Caminero already has 23 for the AL East-leading Rays.
“I’ve feel really comfortable the last two weeks,” he said. “I’m trying to be aggressive in the zone.”
The only other players in Tampa Bay history to have homered in five consecutive games are Jose Canseco in 1999, Carlos Pena in 2010 and Mike Zunino in 2021. Pena’s streak extended to six straight games, the franchise record.
Caminero will try to match that against Kansas City on Wednesday night.
“I mean, thank God he’s on our team,” Rays pitcher Griffin Jax said with a smile. “The way he’s doing it with the power and the not chasing and the not whiffing is just so impressive.”
In an era of faster-paced games thanks in part to the implementation of a pitch clock, MLB has decided to eliminate a similar clock from its Home Run Derby this summer. Each hitter will have 20 swings in the first round of this year’s contest. The change coincides with a switch in broadcaster to Netflix from ESPN, which had televised the event since 1994.
Any player who homers on his 20th swing will keep on swinging until he doesn’t connect for home run. The top four hitters advance, with the distance of the longest homer being used as the tiebreaker if necessary.
The way he’s been swinging the bat, Caminero has a good shot at being there at the end.
“He gets a pitch to hit and he’s not missing,” Rays catcher Nick Fortes said. “I’ve never experienced it so I don’t know how to describe it.”
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